Wild Bill film review and trailer

DEXTER Fletcher puts his twin experiences as a former child star and habitue of Guy Ritchie movies to inspired use in his directorial debut Wild Bill, an unexpectedly brilliant gangster drama that features terrific performances by two youngsters, Sammy Williams and, in particular, Will Poulter.

Pulling off a rare balancing act of being both hugely entertaining and realistic, the picture tells a very familiar story (the ex-con struggling to go straight) with remarkable freshness and authenticity.

Charlie Creed-Miles plays deadbeat dad Bill, an ex-con out on parole in east London after eight years in jail only to discover his two sons, 15-year-old Dean (Poulter) and 10-year-old Jimmy, (Williams) home alone after being abandoned by their mother several months previously.

There’s no appetite for a group hug: the self-sufficient Dean, who works on a construction site for the Olympics and plays pop to Jimmy, bristles with resentment while Bill admits he barely knows his boys and wants to make a fresh start in the north.

It’s a role reversal story in which the father is the one who needs parenting, adrift and unsure of himself, while the boy, Dean, is the authority figure trying to keep everything together.

When social services threaten to cart the boys off into care, Dean blackmails his father to stick around until the authorities can be fooled into thinking all is well.

Back in his old hood can “Wild” Bill stay out of trouble long enough to discover his inner doting dad? Or will he lured into a final showdown at the Okay Corrall, or, in this case, the local boozer?

It may sound all too predictable but the beauty of Dexter Fletcher and Danny King’s screenplay is that you never quite know what is going to happen next, the filmmakers almost relying on our familiarity with the genre to pull the rug from beneath our feet: characters who do or say the unexpected, events that take you by surprise.

As such, tired cliches transform into gripping, lively and often very funny drama, given extra novelty and timeliness by the location - a rapidly changing Newham, east London - and aided by superlative acting.

Creed-Miles is superb as the flawed but likeable Bill and Fletcher elicits an especially fine performance from Poulter as Dean, a quintessentially angry and confused teenager, just one with more reasons to be upset with his folks than most. He’s also in love with a fetching young single mum (Charlotte Spencer) and their relationship has real fizz and heart.

There’s a warmth and optimism to the picture that never strikes a false note and avoids any hint of cuteness as the expected family bonding takes place, often to droll effect (Bill’s unexpected birthday present to Dean is a cracker).

It also pulls off the rare feat of avoiding both dreary social realism and glamourising crime. One of the highlights is a chilling speech by Bill to young Jimmy, who is drifting into crime, on the horrors of prison while the gangsters are spineless, deeply unpleasant scumbags.

Yes, it’s depressingly believable but it’s not depressing. Directed with flair by Fletcher, Wild Bill is more affecting family drama than conventional gangster pic and it’s an outstanding achievement.